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RE: Passives

IMHO, the MAIN advantage of a passive is transparency and possibly lower noise but many SS linestages are extremely quiet these days.

That being said, there can be disadvantages to passives. You have to be much more careful in choosing the other components to be used in a passive setup. You might gain transparency but I've heard some passive setups sound dynamically dull, sterile, and thin.

Basically you want a source with a robust signal output and higher than normal voltage swing can be very beneficial. As an example, the Cary CDP that used I in my passive setup provided 3vrms output which is higher than typical. My amp didn't require a lot of drive to reach full output power, and my speakers were somewhat sensitive.

So in the end, I was able to achieve excellent transparency, maintain great dynamics, and the sound wasn't sterile, thin, or anemic. I was also able to keep the passive about midway in it's range so it wasn't turned all the way up or nearly all the up. I still had plenty of room in both directions.

These critical component matching issues are key to a great sounding passive setup, and not nearly as critical when using an active linestage.

The Best Sounding Passive Setup I Ever Had
Placette Passive with a network of relay switched discrete precision resistors & the Cary CDP source.


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